


Old Friends

by stormy_blue_skies



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Please feel free to bully me in the comments, This is mostly me making myself cry, anyway, but in a sad way, but the ending is happy, idk if it counts as hurt/comfort, you feel?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26962873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormy_blue_skies/pseuds/stormy_blue_skies
Summary: And there we have it! Please, feel free to bully me in the comments djlfklkjsdI hope you liked it!!! And I also hope it made you cry, just a little bit :)Harass me on tumblr at @king-bumi-for-president!
Relationships: Aang & Sokka (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 32





	Old Friends

When Katara hears Aang call for her, her heart falls.

She knows what’s happening. His voice sounds different; strained but peaceful, like he’s already accepted it.

She walks into their bedroom, where Aang is laying on the right side of the bed, peacefully wrapped in his soft robes. She looks at him with tears welling in her eyes and walks towards him, kneeling on the ground beside him and taking his hand in hers. His hand is cold, which only confirms Katara’s thoughts. Aang’s hands were always warm, but today they feel like they were just in the iceberg she’d found him in all those years ago. 

“It’s time,” Aang whispers. 

“No,” Katara says, shaking her head. “Please.” 

“I can’t. I’m so, so sorry."

Katara knew that, no matter how much healing she did, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t keep him alive. He was healthy, but his life force had been drained when he was in the iceberg for a century, and his spirit was weary.

So she let her tears fall and nodded, pressing a kiss to her husband’s knuckles, cold as ice against her lips. She smiles sadly and meets his eyes, and he returns the loving look she gives. 

“Please,” he whispers, “tell our children I love them. And Toph and Zuko, too.”

“I will,” Katara promises with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I will.” 

“And never forget that I love you, Katara. So much.” He coughs and smiles sadly. “And one day, when we meet again... Will you go penguin sledding with me? Like when we were kids?”

That prompts a choked sob from Katara as she nods, smiling at her first memories with her husband. 

“Every day, if you want.”

Aang smiles, a single tear rolling down his cheek. 

“I love you,” he whispers again. 

When he breathes for the final time, light flows from his mouth, into the air, twisting into tendrils that reflect his playful spirit, before dispersing into golden specks.

“I love you too,” Katara whispers.

...

When Aang wakes up, the air around him is fresh and cool against his skin, the grass of the spirit world prickles his neck, and light pierces his eyes. He feels younger, lighter, and he knows that, at last, he’s gone.

He doesn’t open his eyes, simply laying as if he was asleep.

A pang of sadness hits his spirit, but when he hears a familiar laugh above him, and a shadow blocks the warm light over his eyelids, he opens them. 

A familiar brown-skinned man is standing at his feet, with dark hair in a wolftail, and a crooked smile that makes his eyes crinkle. His tunic is lined with fur, and the sleeves on his forearms seem even softer, but nothing’s changed. Not his eyes, not his smile, not the boomerang still attached to his back.

“Good to see you again,” Sokka says. Aang smiles, tears running down his cheeks as he reaches up and grabs Sokka’s forearm, as he does the same to help him up. They hold eye contact for a moment before holding each other in a hug they hadn’t exchanged in years. 

“I missed you, old friend.” 

Aang smiles and knows he’s not alone. 

...

That night, there are more stars in the sky than Katara ever remembers seeing. 

A tear falls from her cheek as she smiles, knowing that that’s her husband lighting the way for the next Avatar. And when the northern lights appear, spirits dancing in the sky, she swears she sees the figure of a man, playing with young, bald children who can jump higher than she’d seen since she was fourteen, meeting the airbender in the iceberg for the first time. 

Katara smiles, knowing that he’s home.

**Author's Note:**

> And there we have it! Please, feel free to bully me in the comments djlfklkjsd
> 
> I hope you liked it!!! And I also hope it made you cry, just a little bit :)
> 
> Harass me on tumblr at @king-bumi-for-president!


End file.
